Gacy nephew takes stand in sex abuse trial

A relative of John Wayne Gacy told a McHenry County jury today that he did not sexually abuse a 12-year-old girl in 2011.

Raymond M. Kasper, 49, a nephew of the infamous serial killer, took the witness stand to refute charges of predatory sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child younger than 13.

Prosecutors charge that Kasper, of Marengo, assaulted the girl in her Algonquin home last year between June and October.

Kasper testified that he did not initially know why the Department of Child and Family Services was questioning him. When the agency told him of the allegations he said it was not true and that the girl was “emotionally disturbed.”

Kasper also testified that the girl was mad at him for other reasons at the time the allegations were made.

“I was not able to patch up my relationship with (the girl),” Kasper said.

The girl testified earlier this week that she had made up the allegations because she was mad at Kasper. She also said she may have dreamed the abuse happened. The girl’s mother also testified this week she “had doubts” about her daughter’s allegations.

Earlier this week jurors heard from a therapist who specializes in cases involving child sexual abuse. She said some children who were sexually abused will recant the allegations when they see others become upset, or they are not believed and feel alienated.

The defense on Thursday called its own expert witness, Robert Meyer, a licensed clinical psychologist, who said that theory, part of the so-called “sexual abuse accommodation syndrome” developed by a therapist in the 1980s, is not a reliable tool to prove sexual abuse.

The author of the syndrome, Roland Summit, himself later said the theory “should never be used to convince a jury of sexual abuse,” Meyer said.

Prosecutors objected to his telling of Summit’s retraction and Judge Joseph P. Condon told jurors to disregard his statements.

On cross examination, Assistant State’s Atty. Sharyl Eisenstein played an audio recording of a phone call Kasper made to the victim’s mother from jail after his arrest.

Eisenstein interpreted Kasper as saying the girl “is going to tell the truth and they're going to put me away for 120 years.”

Kasper strongly disagreed with Eisenstein’s interpretation of the audio, saying that what he said was the girl “has gotta tell the truth or they’re going to put me away for 120 years.”